On Tuesday, county officials publicly announced a $41.4 million lawsuit against 19 telecommunication carriers, alleging that the providers violated state law by undercharging customers - particularly medium-size to large businesses - for the number of phone lines they operate.
The under-billings are significant, the county alleges, because 911 fees - charged to customers as $1 per month on every line they operate - are not collected and remitted to fund the county's emergency services.
But as threats of a lawsuit have emerged in recent weeks, state law has come into play: Discounts are provided on a sliding scale to businesses that operate multiple lines with voice-over-IP capabilities, defined as telephone services that require the use of the Internet.
State Rep. Steve Barrar (R., Delaware), the lead sponsor on a bill to modernize Pennsylvania's 911 system, maintained again Tuesday that the discounts stipulated in the law are relevant.
"I don't see that [the discounts] aren't applicable here," Barrar said Tuesday. "The state law says they are."
But county officials and experts involved in the suit said Tuesday that the discounts do not apply. When businesses are undercharged from the onset - for example, if a business with hundreds of lines is only charged for three - the business would not qualify for the discount, said lawyer Joshua Wolson of Dilworth Paxson, who filed the suit.
"By undercutting the 911 charges at the beginning, they are basically making the [discounts] irrelevant," said Roger Schneider, president of Phone Recovery Services, a forensic telecom company that was retained to determine how much money is owed.
"If they can prove that, they may have a point," Barrar said. "I think they'll have to go into court and prove that."
Phone Recovery has become a pivotal player in similar suits that have emerged across the country in the last decade. Schneider said he has been involved in nearly 15 similar lawsuits and has helped counties receive close to $10 million in settlements.
Among the 19 providers named in the suit are Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast.
©2015 The Philadelphia Inquirer, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
